Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Kuala Lumpur. The Ulama Association of Malaysia has urged Muslims to avoid participating in non-Muslim religious festivities, in a call seen by some as aimed at Prime Minister Najib Razak’s recent attendance at a Thaipusam celebration.

The association’s secretary-general Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor said Muslims should be more careful about this matter because it had a bearing on their faith. A guideline set in 2005 and approved by the National Fatwa Council, he said, was clear about Muslims attending the religious celebrations of non-Muslims.

“Among the criteria set is that the event must not include rituals that are against the Islamic faith,” he said in a statement, adding that Muslims should not participate in such rituals as it may jeopardise their faith.

The association is a non-government group that promotes Islamic values.

The statement did not name any specific incident of infringement, but it came soon after Datuk Seri Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor made a much-publicized visit to the Batu Caves Hindu temple during the Thaipusam festival on Feb 7.

Last week, the conservative Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria told a news Web site that the visit showed Najib had “sacrificed” his faith. He said he had repeatedly advised the Prime Minister not to take part in such events. “It’s an idolatrous act. I don’t know why this happened... when we don’t join in the celebrations of other races in their houses of worship.”

The Perak Mufti added that Muslims may attend festive open houses but not enter houses of worship where religious ceremonies are carried out.

Najib has not responded to the criticism. This is the first time his visit to the Batu Caves has stirred criticism, although he had previously gone there four times in three years, as part of efforts to consolidate crucial Indian support.

When he visited Batu Caves during Thaipusam for the first time in 2010, he was the first prime minister to do so in more than 30 years. Najib had also sought to meet the Christian community the same year, but his first such meeting was marred by overzealous aides who instructed church officials to remove crucifixes and to avoid singing hymns.

Yesterday, the Ulama Association of Malaysia urged all the religious authorities to give the right advice to the country’s leaders.

“At the same time, all leaders who are Muslims are advised to comply with the views of the religious leaders,” said Mohd Roslan.

He said non-Muslims should also understand and respect the Islamic values of their Muslim friends.

The Islamic authorities had also banned Muslims from doing yoga, saying it may involve elements of the Hindu religion.

Observers have warned that such conservative views, if repeated by the clerics and played up by the media, could deepen religious divides in Malaysia and also damage Najib’s efforts to reach out to minority communities.

“It will ignite a certain kind of sentiment on both sides,” said the director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies, Ng Yeen Seen.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.

Malaysia’s
future lies not only in good governance, transparency, an end to
corruption, and whatnot. These are of course important. More
importantly, Malaysians must learn to respect the individual’s right to
his/her beliefs and choices. This is what we have lost and what we had
back in the 1950s and 1960s.NO HOLDS BARREDRaja Petra KamarudinFive couples nabbed in early Valentine's Day raids
(The
Star) - Five couples were nabbed during the early hours of Valentine's
Day for alleged khalwat (close proximity), in raids conducted by the
Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) and Petaling Jaya City
Council (MBPJ).
In the raids that began at 12.30am Tuesday,
enforcement officers swooped in on the couples, who were found in budget
hotels around Kota Damansara and Bandar Sri Damansara here.
The men and women were aged between 20 and 30.
Some covered their faces with towels as they were escorted from hotel rooms into the Jais vans.
The
operation, known as the Petaling District Level 6th Anti-Vice Campaign,
was conducted by a total of 85 enforcement officers from Jais, MBPJ,
the Immigration Department, district land office and police.
The couples were released on bail and will be charged in the Syariah court as soon as possible.
The raid ended at about 4am.
Under
the Selangor Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995, khalwat is an offence
which is punishable with a jail term of up to two years or fine up to
RM3,000 or both, upon conviction.

************************************************

The
last time something like this happened in Selangor we blamed PAS. We
blamed Hasan Ali, the PAS man in charge of religion who we called an
Umno mole, a Trojan horse, an ex-BTN operative, and whatnot.
Well,
Hasan Ali is gone. He is history. Religion now comes directly under the
Menteri Besar, a PKR and not a PAS man. But it is still business as
usual.
Now, this is not merely a Pakatan Rakyat problem. This
also happens in other states, which are not Pakatan Rakyat ruled. In
fact, it happens all over Malaysia. The woman who was arrested and caned
for drinking beer happened in Pahang, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s
home state.
No, today I am not talking about corruption. I am not even talking about religion. I am talking about civil liberties.
I
know that as a Muslim I should not be talking about this, especially in
opposition to it. If I do want to talk about it I should be in support
of any move to eradicate sin and vice. Nevertheless, I did say in my
interview some time ago (which you can see on Youtube) that if I want to
talk about civil liberties, then I would have to remove my Muslim cap
and put on my civil liberties cap. I can’t be wearing both caps at the
same time just like when I want to talk about the third estate (the rakyat) I need to remove my Pakatan Rakyat cap (which many of you hate when I do that).
Now,
this will probably give you an impression that Islam is not compatible
with civil liberties. Actually, it is not only Islam. All the Abrahamic
faiths are not compatible with civil liberties -- although nowadays
heresy and apostasy are no longer punishable by death in England,
France, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc., like, say, 400 or 500 years ago.
Note
though, it was not that long ago that witches were still burned alive
at the stake in America. So we really don’t have to go that far back in
history to see what we would today call barbaric practices.
MCLM,
when first mooted almost eight years ago, was not supposed to be
involved in politics or the elections. It was supposed to be a purely
civil liberties movement to uphold the right of Malaysians to decide how
they want to live their lives and what they would like to believe or
not believe. This, of course, would include the right to even not
believe in God, if that is what you wish to believe.
I may not
believe that Jesus died on the cross and came back to life three days
later. But if that is what you believe then you have a right to believe
that -- and whatever else you may want to believe and practice.
Anyway,
somehow, MCLM ended up becoming a political movement and people started
perceiving MCLM as a political party that aspires to contest the
elections. Maybe that is our fault for talking about quality candidates
and about helping Pakatan Rakyat look for such candidates and offer
these candidates to them for the next election. That overshadowed
everything else that MCLM was trying to do.
We have since
abandoned all talk about elections and candidates. MCLM will soon be
holding its first annual meeting and elections. Anyone who is a member
is eligible to contest (we have slightly over 1,000 members). And I hope
MCLM will soon see a new committee that can chart its course and focus
on issues involving civil liberties.
The talk about forbidding
Santa Claus hats, barring gay singers from performing in Malaysia,
banning Valentine’s Day, and much more, are issues involving civil
liberties. No doubt Malaysia practices Shariah laws and under these laws
Muslims are forbidden from doing many things and are obligated to do
many others.
But what if you are not a Muslim? Must you also
be subjected to the same taboos? And, more importantly, what if you are a
Muslim? Does the state have a right to interfere in your lifestyle,
beliefs, sexual preferences and whatnot?
This is a debate that
will never see a consensus. You can’t debate when you apply two
different value systems. One debater will be talking from religion’s
point of view and the other from the civil liberties point of view.
Do
you know that the First Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, used to go
to the horse races every weekend? He also gambled with his Chinese
friends (played cheekee) and would drink like a fish (not sure if fishes
do drink). That was one of the issues Dr Mahathir Mohamad used against
him when he wanted to oust the Tunku (read Dr Mahathir’s letter to the
Tunku: you can Google it).
But then, in spite of what many,
today, would view as a most ‘immoral’ Prime Minister, Malaysia was a
peaceful place. There was no racism and religious intolerance. In fact,
the Tunku used to say that he was the happiest Prime Minister in the
world.
Then the Tunku became heartbroken and was no longer
happy. Until the day he died he still cried whenever he talked about the
matter (read ‘The Tunku Tapes’ by K Das). And the issue that brought him to tears was the blackest day in Malaysia’s history, May 13.
The
Tunku asked, why did God allow him to live to see the day when
Malaysians would kill fellow Malaysians? He would rather have died than
see that day. The Tunku was devastated and not long after that he
resigned as Prime Minister. He seldom smiled again after that, not even
when we threw him an 80th birthday party and launched the University
Malaya Tunku Abdul Rahman Chair of International Law with a launching grant of RM1 million as his birthday present on 8th February 1983.
(Incidentally, how many of you lawyers out there are beneficiaries of this foundation?)
The
Tunku was probably Malaysia’s first civil libertarian. And he believed
that you decide what you want to believe and how you would like to live
your life. And not only was the Tunku the happiest Prime Minister but we
Malaysians of the 1950s and 1960s were the happiest people in the
world.
Then the politicians decided they would end all that.
Led by Tun Razak, Dr Mahathir, Datuk Harun Idris, and those of their
ilk, they triggered May 13 and attacked the Tunku. The Tunku was blamed
for May 13. It is because he was too ‘soft’ to the Chinese, they
alleged.
And, since then, Malaysia has never been the same again.
Can
we reverse all this? I really don’t know. But that is what MCLM will
have to explore. It may be possible or it may not. Only time can tell.
But MCLM must be absolutely apolitical and non-partisan. It must also be
brave enough to speak out against any religious ruling that is opposed
to civil liberties even if the religionists accuse them of being
heretics and apostates.
Malaysia’s future lies not only in
good governance, transparency, an end to corruption, and whatnot. These
are of course important. More importantly, Malaysians must learn to
respect the individual’s right to his/her beliefs and choices. This is
what we have lost and what we had back in the 1950s and 1960s.

Loss of a major combat fighter jet contract stirs anger in Westminster
Soon after the Indian Air Force rejected the UK’s Eurofighter Typhoon
jets in favor of the French Dassault Rafale for its US$20-billion
medium multi-role combat aircraft project, considerable rancor surfaced
in Britain over sending aid to an increasingly prosperous India.

The decision has kicked off a major discussion in both India and the UK
about the nature of aid. Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s Secretary of State
for International Development, acknowledged that the focus of the £250
million annual payments included seeking to sell the Typhoon, which is
in violation of the stated rationale of British overseas aid “to fight
poverty and promote health and education.”

The real reason behind the irritation, analysts say, is not so much the
millions of pounds sterling in aid to Delhi but the fact India signed
the deal with France for the Rafale fighter jets despite the fact that
British aid to New Delhi is nearly 15 times more than Paris’s. Prime
Minister David Cameron is vowing to persuade Delhi to reconsider.

The aid debate is fraught with other questions about the very nature of
aid. Conservative groups in rich countries have always opposed aid as
they see it as an extension of the welfare state. Developing country
elites, on the other hand, are inimical to this outreach initiative
because as a columnist put it, it smacks of “dependency, neo-colonialism
and reminds them of domestic policy failure.”

In other words, the episode has necessitated a reexamination of foreign
aid at a time when emerging economies like India, China and Brazil are
growing in economic and geopolitical heft, while the developed countries
are experiencing economic woes.

“That pockets of wealth should co-exist with swathes of poverty is
increasingly common in the developing world. The provision of aid is
politically trickier because it must walk a tightrope between elite
narratives and continuing deprivation,” said an editorial in the
Hindustan Times.

Does it make any sense, the anti-aid lobby in Britain is arguing, to
lavish that kind of annual aid on a burgeoning superpower that is
snapping up expensive warplanes, has a defense budget that tops US$30
billion, a figure that has more than tripled since the 1998 nuclear
blasts, and is seeking to put the first Indian astronauts into space by
2016?

Besides, the anti-aid crusaders point, India has 153,000 US dollar
millionaires — 20 percent up in a year, compared with Britain’s own
meager increase of less than one percent. Plus, such is the economic
power of India that it now gives out more foreign aid than it receives,
and has handed over £ 3.5 billion to cement relations with Africa. So
why does it need aid?

There was outrage in India too. The blogosphere erupted with toxic
comments over British expectations. “It is a clear case of misplaced
expectations. India is not a British colony; it decides its own policy,”
commented one blogger. “Its time the British came out of their colonial
mindset and stopped behaving like a feudal master.”

France, meanwhile, has been gloating over the sale of the Rafale --
called “the white elephant of French arms manufacturing” -- with
embattled President Nicolas Sarkozy, who faces a bitterly contested
election later this year, trumpeting it as a “major boost” to the French
economy.

To buttress its argument in support of canceling all aid to India, the
anti-aid groups in Britain raked up finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s
last August statement in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) where he had
mentioned that India did not need British aid as it was “peanuts.” “We
do not require the aid. We will voluntarily surrender it (if the UK
decides to cut down the aid)… It is peanuts in our total development
exercises (expenditure),” Mukherjee had said.

The Sunday Mail quoted a leaked memo which reportedly said the then
foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, proposed not to take any further
assistance from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)
with effect from April 1, 2011, because of the negative publicity
generated by the agency regarding Indian poverty. The paper added,
quoting official transcripts, that the British government then “begged”
India to take the money.

According to India’s aid policy, the nation is not in favor of Overseas
Development Assistance or bilateral aid that creates repayment
obligations. In 2003, it said it was not keen on tied aid, though
bilateral aid is considered kosher from G-8 countries and EU. For non-EU
European countries, “aid is acceptable only if it is above US$25
million annually”.

However, with the two-way arguments threatening to snowball into a
diplomatic crisis, New Delhi has been trying to downplay it, saying that
its decision to buy Rafale jets over Typhoons was made purely on
“technical grounds”. For instance, it is being pointed out the "life
cycle cost" of operating the Typhoon over a 40-year period, with 6,000
hours of flying, was found to be "higher" than Rafale after extensive
calculations of flight costs, spares, maintenance and the like.

However, a section of defense analysts said the choice of the Rafale’
over Typhoon is a “strategic blunder”. “There is a clear disconnect
between the MEA and MoD (ministry of defense) on the matter,” said one
expert. “Costs appear to have outweighed their final choice and not
strategic considerations.”

More than anything else, the arguments and counter arguments over the
jet deal underscore the macro debate over the politics of foreign aid,
not to mention the unarticulated expectation that the donor’s “favor”
will be reciprocated by the receiver in the form of some economic
tradeoff.

“The Typhoon episode is strongly reminiscent of the concept of 'tied'
aid, or a quid pro quo expected by the donor party,” said NGO activist
Sudhakar Bokade formerly with the Indian army. “It is ridiculous of
Britain to expect that India would award it an expensive defense
contract purely out of obligation. This expectation totally kills the
spirit of charity. It is far better to strike the aid off from one’s
foreign policy agenda than give in to such sentiments.”

Bokade added that aid should be about poor people and the social
transformational potential they embody rather than “blatant commercial
tradeoffs”.

There is another pertinent aspect to the aid conundrum as pointed out by
The Guardian in a recent article. “Underlying the debate raging over
British aid to India,” said the newspaper, “is the myth that the
subcontinent's strong, market-driven growth of the past two decades has
pulled hundreds of millions out of poverty…In reality, since 1991,
during which time India has experienced the highest growth in recent
history, there has been no significant reduction in poverty or hunger.
Two in every five children remain malnourished.”

The paper argues further that “the neo-liberal policies unleashed by
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, when he was finance minister in the
early 90s, have widened class disparities obscenely”.

In other words, Bokhade said, it would be morally wrong of the UK to
terminate aid to India as it hosts the largest number of the world's
poor.

“London should fulfill its obligations to set right the gross structural
imbalances that continue to plague the world despite tectonic shifts in
power between the so-called rich and poor nations,” the activist
concluded.

FEB 14 — This is some friendly advice to Lim Guan Eng. Watch your back. Team Najib have identified you as a main target, a real problem for them in the coming general elections.

In the power circles in Putrajaya, Lim Guan Eng is a problem, not only in Penang but in urban areas and even in East Malaysia where the feedback is that the Penang CM is popular.

So the strategists in Umno have decided that Lim must be kept busy fending off attacks. He must be kept off balance and so worried that he will not leave Penang to campaign for Pakatan Rakyat.

Aiding and abetting Umno in this task are some turncoats in DAP and PKR and Chinese businessmen. They have been promised a big payoff.

Guan Eng, you can expect your name to be dragged in the mud just like Anwar Ibrahim’s.

The only difference is that the administration will not use the mainstream media because they know that you will sue. They are going to employ the Umno bloggers to destroy you.

If you have skeletons in the closet, you are in trouble. If you don’t have, they will make it up.

This so-called expose on the Bayan Mutiara land deal should be see in this light. I don’t expect Rahman Dahlan to take up your dare and challenge you that the land was sold through open tender. The last thing he wants is for you to show him up to be what he is.

He and other Umno politicians just want to distract you and tar your image.

BANGKOK, Feb 15 (Bernama) -- An Iranian was arrested at the Suvarnabhumi
International Airport here Tuesday night, in connection with a series
of three bombing incidents in the capital earlier.

Bangkok Metropolitan police chief Pol Lt Gen Winai Thongsaeng said the
man was picked up as he was about to take a 6pm flight out of the
country.

Three bomb explosions rocked Bangkok today, including an incident where
an Iranian man lost his legs when a bomb he hurled at a police patrol
car, ricochetted and struck him at Sukhumvit 71 Road here.

The suspect detained at the airport was believed to be one of the two housemates of the bomber. The other is still at large.

Earlier, National Police Deputy Chief Pol Gen Pansiri Praphawat said,
apart from the bomber, four locals were injured in the bombing
incidents.

He said the first bomb exploded at a house rented by the Iranian at Soi
(lane) Preedeepanomyong 31, off Sukhumvit 71 Road about 2pm. Later, the
police found several home-made bombs inside the house.

Pansiri said, as the Iranian man tried to run away after the explosion,
he flagged down a taxi at the roadside of the Soi but threw another
bomb at the taxi when the taxi driver refused to stop after being
alerted by the public that he carried bombs.

He said a police patrol car managed to intercept the bomber in front of a
school at Sukhumvit 71 Road and the bomber threw the third bomb at the
patrol car but it ricochetted and exploded, causing him to lose his
legs.

It could not be ascertained whether today's bombing incidents are linked
to the terrorism alerts in this capital issued by some countries last
month.

On Jan 13, the United States Embassy here warned that foreign terrorists
might conduct attacks against tourist areas in this capital in the near
future.

A terrorist suspect, a 48-year-old Lebanese, was detained in this city
on Jan 12, and more than four tonnes of explosive materials discovered
later.

Some have suggested that “drug abuse” (usually taken to mean
illegal or hardcore drugs) played a part in Whitney’s downfall, but
reports have emerged that prescription pills were found around her hotel
bath-tub.
The Daily Mail reported:

The body of the singer, 48, was found in a bathtub at her
suite on Saturday, surrounded by different bottles of prescription
pills including ibuprofen – a painkiller, Xanax – an anti-anxiety drug,
Midol – for menstrual cramps, amoxicillin – for bacterial infections and
several others.

Her doctors are said to be facing questions.
Read the full report, which is quite revealing.
Not what Big Pharma would like to hear.